Cranberries: Thanksgiving’s Natural Treat
Cranberries are a peculiar food. For most of the year, nobody gives them a second thought other than the occasional glass of juice. But when Thanksgiving starts to roll around every year, they quickly return to the public eye. And even though cranberries have been a staple of countless Thanksgiving dinners for centuries, many people just don’t know much about these tiny, tart berries.
Cranberry plants
Cranberries are grown in acidic bogs through cooler areas of the northern hemisphere. The small berries grow on low, creeping vines and shrubs that can grow almost a foot high. Cranberry bushes have thing, wiry stems with small evergreen leaves and dark pink flowers. These flowers are perfect for attracting honeybees, which are the plants’ primary means of pollination.
Cranberries themselves grow from these pink flowers and are at type of epigynous berry, meaning they grow larger than the plant’s leaves, and are closely related to blueberries and huckleberries. When cranberries begin to grow, they are white, but slowly gain color until they ripen into a deep red.
Cranberry history
Native to North America, cranberries were named by European settler who thought the berries’ flowers and stems looked like the head, neck and bill of a crane. In northeaster Canada, one of the original homes of the cranberry, they are known as mossberries.
Cranberry farming
Cranberries are a major cash crop in several areas of North America. Several northern areas in the United States and southern provinces of Canada produce large amounts of cranberries every year.
When cranberries are harvested, the fields – or beds – that they are grown in are flooded. The flooding does not last all year, and is only done during harvest time to protect the cranberry bushes from the harsh weather associated with their cool harvest time. When the berries float to the top of the water, they are picked by essentially skimming them from the water’s surface.
Cranberry health benefits
Cranberries are known for being extremely rich in antioxidants. Cranberries contain moderate amounts of vitamin C, fiber and manganese, an essential dietary mineral. Cranberries are widely known for their health-promoting characteristics and are popular in some circles for their cleansing properties.
